Graduate student resources

Early in the fall semester, Butler Library offers orientations on research at Columbia and navigating the numerous databases available to Columbia students.

For information on research-related and conference travel funding, please see the standalone MA Student Handbook or the PhD Student Handbook.

In case of financial emergencies, students may wish to avail themselves of the GSAS Emergency Fund.

The GSAS Student Emergency Fund is intended to mitigate short-term financial hardship that results from sudden, extreme, and unanticipated circumstances, and which may preclude the student from completing their studies. The fund reimburses one-time expenses up to $1,000 for students who demonstrate that expenses cannot be covered by current sources of income or other personal resources. Recipients are not required to repay disbursements from the Student Emergency Fund. However, we encourage students who draw from the fund to contribute to it to the extent that they are able at any time, so that others who face similar challenges may continue to benefit.

The Étienne Balibar graduate essay prize will be awarded annually for the best essay in cultural and political theory by a Columbia Masters or PhD student in the Department of French and/or the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. The essay must be completed within the past 18mos. It can be previously published as the winner will not be published in the Gadfly (an undergraduate journal.)

Eligibility requires that you are or were a student in either the Department of French or ICLS during the current academic year. If you graduated during the academic year, you may still submit for this prize.

Each prize recognizes the important contributions that political philosopher Étienne Balibar made as a scholar and teacher during his twelve years as a visiting professor at Columbia University. Submissions are invited on all areas of cultural and political thought, in particular topics explored by Étienne Balibar e.g., nation, citizenship, borders, migration, globalization, world systems, race, class, and the legacies and applications of Marx and Marxism. There are no restrictions with respect to methodology or disciplinary approach.

Submissions may be based on previous coursework or on a thesis/dissertation chapter. The expectation is that the essay was written within the past eighteen months. The prescribed length is 8 to 20 double-spaced pages for undergraduate submissions, and 10 to 30 double-spaced pages for submissions by graduate students. For papers in other languages, please provide an English translation with the original.

Please clearly include your name, department, as well as your year in the undergraduate or the graduate program.

Please follow the Chicago notes & bibliography citation format.

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee of faculty from the Department of French and the Executive Committee of ICLS.

If you have further questions, please contact ICLS or the DAAF in French.

Career resources for MA and PhD students are available through the Center for Career Education and GSAS Compass.